Final Fantasy VII: The Calm Before the Storm
by TyThePsycho
Summary: Cloud is back, and he's out on a new mission.
1. Chapter 1: Cloud

Chapter 1: Cloud 

It was quiet. Cloud lay in the hay, his spiked blonde hair blowing in the gentle breeze. He was wearing a black shirt, black jeans, and a red bandana around his forehead.His chocobo sat in it's stable, warbling quietly, trying to fall asleep. Choco Billy walked over to him and looked at him for a few seconds before Cloud opened his eyes. "Yes, Billy?" he was still thinking of her... He couldn't stop thinking of her... Even with Tifa trying twice as hard to impress him, all he could think of now that Sephiroth was gone was her... And how he could have saved her that night...  


"Well, um... You see... Your rent on that stable is up, and we've got someone who needs it." Billy looked at him regretfully, but his grandfather's orders weren't changable. Even to the man who saved the world, money is money, and nothing in life is free.Cloud stood up casually and opened the stable, Boco, his only chocobo left after the rest of the stable caught fire, killing off the rest, including a brilliant gold chocobo he had received as a reward from a collector in Kalm town. All he had left was Boco, and only because he had run in despite the flames and freed Boco, the rest of the chocobos were already doomed. For this, Boco was extremely loyal to Cloud, and would do anything for him at the blink of an eye.  


"Looks like it's time for us to go, Boco." Cloud hopped on boco's back, held on tightly to him, and set out. Where he was going, he didn't know, but he was alone besides Boco, everyone went back to their lives. Barret and Marlene decided to move to Kalm, since Midgar was ruins. Tifa still visited Cloud once in a while, she obviously wanted to get Cloud to accept the fact that Aeris was gone, and that he should move on, but he wasn't ready to move on.  


He decided to pay a visit to Barret and Marlene, since he hadn't seen them since they separated from everyone a few weeks after the Meteor Incident, as it was called now. He headed out to Kalm on Boco. Boco wasn't the fastest chocobo in the world, but he got the job done. A few hours later, they were in Kalm. He left Boco outside the town and went into town. The first thing he noticed was that everyone who escaped Midgar before it was destroyed had moved to Kalm. That wasn't that many people, but it was still noticeable in the air, people were still complaining about their lost possessions, 2 months after the Incident.  


Barret was home. Cloud let himself in, as he usually does anyways, and found Marlene sitting at the dining room table. She looked up at Cloud and yelled, "Daddy, we have a visitor!" Marlene was about 9 years old, her hair was long and brown. She was wearing a light blue dress and a matching bow in her hair. Barret walked into the room, and rubbed his eyes out as soon as he saw Cloud.  


"Damn, it's been a while!" Barret just stood there. He was about 6 feet tall, with dark skin, and short black hair, wearing a brown tank top and blue jeans. One of his arms was half cut off a long time ago, but he had a gun grafted onto it to make up for the missing hand. Right now though, it was a mechanical arm. "Well, yeah, I've been isolating myself lately, but my pay on the chocobo stable ran out, so I left."  


"Well, shit happens. Lookin' for a place to stay?" Barret actually seemed to have more respect than he did back then. "No, I'm gonna get a ship to Bone Town and head north from there."  


Barret looked at Cloud, his eyes showed that he realized what Cloud wanted to do. "You still can't get over her, can you?" Cloud looked back at Barret, his eyes seemed empty still, but it was obvious that Barret was right. "Maybe not. Is that a problem?"  


Barret shook his head, "No, of course not. Go right ahead." He thought for a second. "Wait, if you're heading north, then why did you stop here?"  
"I just felt like visiting for a few minutes. Let you know where I was if Tifa came looking." Cloud nodded. Barret knew what that meant right off. "So, she's still on your case, huh?" Cloud nodded. Barret shook his head slowly, "Well, that's just how Tifa is. She gets possessive."   


"Oh, I've noticed. Well, I have to go now, hopefully catch a ride on a boat from Junon. See ya, Barret." Barret nodded. Cloud never was one for talking much, in fact, he hardly ever spoke to anyone these days. He walked out the door, and left town as quickly as he had come, hopping on Boco's back and setting off into the sunset. Tifa walked towards Kalm from the other direction just as Cloud's silhouette vanished into the distance. 

--End Chapter 1--


	2. Chapter 2: Tifa

Chapter 2: Tifa 

Tifa showed up at Barret's house the next day. She knocked on the door until Barret answered. "Barret, have you seen Cloud?" Barret laughed quietly to himself, he knew she would be asking him, and Cloud didn't say he couldn't answer her. "Yep, he was by a few weeks ago. Said he was heading north, to Bone Town." Tifa just stared at Barret for a few seconds then stomped her foot, "Ugh, I can't believe him! He can't just get over her!"

"Maybe you should let him keep at it until he realizes there's no way to have her back," Barret suggested. Tifa just gave him an angry look, "Barret, does it look like I can just wait until Hell freezes over!? That's not just going to happen, it's been 3 months since she died, and he's still in denial. At this rate by the time he realizes this, I'll be 80 years old!" Tifa was obviously sick and tired of waiting around for Cloud, but she wasn't about to give up on him yet.

"How is he getting there?" Barret thought about this question for a moment and then remembered, "Oh, yeah, he was taking a boat from Junon. If you go that way you might be able to follow him, and with his chocobo and your buggy, you might catch up to him. It'll take him at least another 4 days to get to Junon. Not including the Midgar Zolom." The Midgar Zolom was one of the most feared creatures on the continent since Ultima Weapon was defeated.

Tifa left right then and there. No goodbye, or anything. She just hopped into her buggy and drove off. Barret stood in his doorway watching her leave, chuckling to himself, "That girl is persistant. Stupid, but persistant."

Driving across the fields in the buggy wasn't easy. The monsters still attacked her, and even though they were definately no match for her, the bits of damage starts to accumulate after a while. At the chocobo ranch, she stopped and paid the old man to let her spend the night.

That night, she sat awake half of the night, thinking about Cloud's obsession. "He's crazy... She's been dead for 3 months, and he still won't give up." She saw the day that she, Barret, and Cloud witnessed Sephiroth's slaying of Aeris, a beautiful girl in her early 20's, dressed in a pink dress with a red vest over it, her hair brown, long and tied into a ponytail behind her head, flowing past her neck and down her back. The sword went right through her, and there was no blood, no pain... Just instant death.

"Hell, I liked Aeris, obviously, we were all friends. But I got over the fact that she died, Cloud didn't. He needs to learn to get over the past, and look forward to the future." She didn't realize how loudly she was talking to herself until Billy started banging on the wall and yelling, "Could you keep it down in there?? I'm trying to sleep!"

"Sorry..." Tifa took one last look at the wall before she dozed off and dreamed about Cloud... The boy she had liked ever since they were young...

--End of Chapter 2--


	3. Chapter 3: Onward to Junon

Chapter 3: Onward to Junon 

Boco stopped short. He knew what lurked in the thick grass, every chocobo did. The Midgar Zolom... A fierce giant snake which would easily make a meal out of a chocobo and it's rider. Cloud watched the ground and beckoned Boco to go across carefully. So Boco did. There was no sign of the Zolom yet. Boco seemed to be relieved. Then, halfway through, the enormous snake dug out of the ground in front of them and attacked.

Cloud jumped off of Boco and drew his sword, a huge and powerful blade called Apocalypse. The snake stared at Cloud. Cloud stared back. Cloud lunged at the snake before it had a chance to attack, and dug his blade deep into the snake's body, then he jumped upward, taking his sword with him, slashing through the snake. The snake fell to the ground, covered in blood, cut from his face down. Cloud walked over to the snake, and to make sure he had finished the job, he sliced the head off of the giant snake.

Cloud returned to Boco and jumped on his back. Boco looked nervously at the dead snake as he walked by it, almost as if he expected it to spring back to life and eat them both. But it didn't. And the next stop was the Mythril Cave. Cloud got off of Boco and led him on foot from there. The ledges of the cave were dangerous, especially from the view on a chocobo's back. They walked into the cave, Cloud held onto Boco by a rope connected to a collar on his neck.

The monsters in the cave were not about to attack Cloud. They all ran when they saw this strange yellow feathered creature and the human who controlled it. Cloud got to the other end of the cave no problem. He headed out of the cave and jumped back onto Boco's back, and Boco continued from there.

Junon wasn't far from there, it would only take a few days on Boco. Cloud didn't sleep at all during those few days. He hadn't slept since they left the ranch. His mind was set. He had to visit the Forgotten City again. If only to remember what had happened. How it was his fault that she was dead. His fault Sephiroth killed her, and his fault for everything else that happened afterwards.

A few days later, they arrived at Junon. The Shinra soldiers that controlled the port town had turned into sailors and ran the ships for the public, now that Shinra was gone. Cloud rode Boco into town, as the villagers in the lower town stared in awe at this visitor, riding proudly atop a chocobo. Cloud bought himself a ticket, and had Boco put in the storage room. The ship departed the next day, so Cloud had an entire day to wait.

He decided now would be as good a time as any to rest. He left Boco with the ship, since Boco was more than willing to rest after walking for days on end, and went to the Inn. He payed for the night and walked up to his room. He laid back onto the pillow and thought for a while about what had happened in the past few months, how the world had almost ended, and how he had helped save the world from a huge Meteor that would have collided with their small planet, and most definately wiped it out completely.

He fell asleep to that thought, and dreamed the whole journey he and his friends had taken, up to the point when Aeris was killed, at which point he woke up to someone prodding his side. He looked up and saw Tifa standing over him, her arms folded over her stomach, her face showed definate anger at Cloud. "Cloud, what is with you?" Tifa looked down at him. Cloud sat up. "Nothing's with me. Boco is in the ship already, resting. Tifa shook her head, "Still a smartass, I see. Why are you going back there?" 

"Oh, so I need to explain myself now?" Cloud looked at Tifa, half awake, half not caring. "Cloud, you know I worry about you. You spend all your time thinking about her and -- " Cloud interrupted her with, "It's my fault she's dead, Tifa. The least I could do is go pay my respects." 

"You don't need to be so obsessed with it though. You hardly ever talk to me anymore, you know." Tifa was obviously getting into a topic Cloud did not want to put up with right now, but he had no choice but to respond. "I don't know, Tifa. OK? I don't know. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to sleep." He laid his head back onto the pillow and closed his eyes.

Tifa hit him in the face with a couch pillow that was on the floor. "Cloud, I did not just travel halfway across the world just to have you ignore me." Cloud opened his eyes slowly. "Well, I didn't ask you to follow me, did I?" Tifa let out an angry sigh and walked away, out of the room, out of Junon, into her buggy, and started to drive away.

"Hmph, men..." She thought as she drove away.

--End of Chapter 3--


	4. Chapter 4: Yuffie

Chapter 4: Yuffie 

As Tifa drove away, she could only think about how Cloud had changed so much. Her mind was so out of it that she jumped when a girl jumped on the hood of the buggy, chasing a monster down, she had almost got hit. Tifa stepped out of the car and found a familiar face standing on the other side of the car.

"Oh my god! Tifa! Hi!" The girl stood about 5 feet tall, her hair was dark, her skin was tan, she was wearing foreign clothes, and holding a 4 point shruiken, she had been chasing a Zemelett for food. The girl's name was Yuffie. She had helped Cloud and Tifa when they went to fight Sephiroth. Even if she did steal their materia at one point, they had given her one last chance. "Oh, hello Yuffie," Tifa rubbed her eyes out, she looked like she had been sleeping.

"What the hell were you doing, sleeping while driving?" Yuffie looked at Tifa confusedly. "No, I was just thinking." Which was true. She had been thinking. Too much obviously. "Well, ya know, it's fortunate that you almost hit me, I haven't seen you in so long, but... Um... I kinda got mad and slashed the engine before I knew it was you," Yuffie smiled innocently.

"You what?!" Tifa looked at the hood. Sure enough, there was a gaping hole in the hood that went right through the engine. "Sorry," Yuffie apologized, "But hey! Now we can hang out and spend some time together!" Yuffie took Tifa by the arm and led her towards the forest. It wasn't like Tifa had much of a say in it, seeing as it was either that or stay with the trashed buggy until she starved to death. At least Yuffie seemed to know how to live out here for extended periods of time.

"Well, let's go back to my camp!" Yuffie was obviously excited to have company. Tifa made a note to hide any materia she had on her before she went to sleep. They walked back to Yuffie's camp, which was in the middle of the field next to the river. When they arrived, Yuffie took out a knife and started cutting up dead monsters. Tifa kind of looked at her in disgust as she cut up the wings of a Zemelett and some other monsters and tossed the bits together. A minute later she handed Tifa a plate full of cooked bits of monsters.

"Um... What exactly do you call this?" Tifa poked at the bits of meat with a chopstick. She could have sworn one of the bits had moved on it's own. Yuffie grinned as she grabbed a huge chunk of meat with her chopsticks and forced it into her mouth. "Chop suey" she managed to say with her mouth full. Tifa felt a wave of nausea flood her body and she suddenly wished she had decided to stay with the buggy and starve to death. "I'm not all that hungry anymore," she lied.

After Yuffie was done stuffing her face, to which Tifa had to close her eyes and pretend to have a headache to keep from losing her lunch all over the place, Yuffie and Tifa were sitting around the fire quietly, when Yuffie suddenly asked, "So, have you seen Cloud?" Tifa looked at Yuffie, assuming this was just a way to start a conversation and said, "Yeah, he's still getting over Aeris, of course." Yuffie looked down into her lap. "Oh... I see. I feel bad for him."

Tifa started to feel a wave of spite for Yuffie, but she quickly shrugged it off as a misunderstanding. "Yeah" That was the only bit of conversation that entire night. About a half hour later, Yuffie laid down on her sleeping bag and went to sleep. Tifa sat there looking into the fire that entire night, until about 1 the next morning, when she finally dozed off in the sleeping bag Yuffie had let her use.

--End Chapter 4--


End file.
